My thoughts on Specific Craft

I found many good points in chapters 4 and 5 of Crafting Writers. One technique she pointed out was "zooming in" on a writing. This type of revision is where students look only at a specific part of their entry and revise or expand the entry on another piece of paper. I have always found it hard to revise an entire paper. It can be somewhat overwhelming. This technique allows you to just focus on a small portion of a paper and expand on it, creating a better written paper in the end. I think it is a great revision tool, and it is a technique I will want my future students to use in their writing. There are many ways to make writing come alive to a reader. Just using adjectives to make the reader see or hear what you are writing makes a piece of writing seem more real to the reader. There are many good writing crafts in these chapters that I will bring into my future classroom.

My thoughts on the article "Developing Spelling Strategies"

I was surprised to find that I enjoyed reading this article. I have never thought so in-depth on the process of spelling words for children. Spelling words has just become an instinct for me now and this article shined a new light on the spelling process. The strategies she proposed are all very important. One strategy, the human resource strategy, is one I've seen numerous times when I've observed a classroom. Many students will just ask me or the teacher how to spell a word, and I never knew how to go about it. I would tell the child to try to sound out the word to the best of their ability and then try to find the word in the dictionary. Many students would have wanted me just give them the correct spelling, but it is important for the students to gain this ability on their own rather than depend on another person. I liked her point on peers helping each other is better than asking an adult. This allows for collaboration among students, which I think is important in the classroom setting, but it also allows for each student to get stronger in their spelling. I agree with the article in that I think it is important for the classroom to have many resources for spelling, such as posters, dictionaries, books, and many more. Students need to learn to turn to these resources when they have trouble spelling. Overall, I felt that this article had many good points on spelling and has made me realize what to expect as a future teacher on this subject.

Coffee Shop Literacy Dig

My team and I observed people at a local Starbucks in town. I noticed a lot of talk among workers about drinks. Considering they are taking orders from customers, it is understandable why they would be talking about the drinks. Many people had lap tops out and books out, which made me assume they were thinking about their school work and what they needed to complete. There were many tables as well as comfortable seats all over the shop. It was set up with so many seats because coffee shops are known as a place to have meetings, do school work, and meet up with family and friends for an afternoon snack.

I think that they are talking about the drinks, because I personally work at a coffee shop so I know that in order for the store to operate, the workers must communicate which drink is being ordered to each other. I know that people are thinking about their school work, because me and my friends go to coffee shops to work on homework. There are many things that I have done and read to support my interpretation. I know from experience, because I work at a coffee shop and talk to the customers and many of them let me know what they are doing there. I have also read many articles in newspapers and magazines about what people like about being in a coffee shop.

Blogging in the classroom.

I think that using blogs in the classroom are a great learning tool for students. It allows them to express their thoughts and feelings on certain topics in a new, exciting way. It promotes collaboration among students as well, where students can comment and respond to their peer's blogs. This allows students to see different viewpoints of other student's. Overall, I think blogs are an excellent tool to us in any classroom setting.